What A Difference 2013 Makes For This 2-Bedroom East Lincoln Park Coach House: 337 W. Armitage
We’ve chattered about this 2-bedroom coach house at 337 W. Armitage in East Lincoln Park several times over the past 20 months.
See our April 2012 chatter here.
Most recently listed in June 2011 for $500,000, most of you thought it was overpriced and would end up selling around $400,000.
It was ultimately reduced to $430,000 in 2012 but it still didn’t sell and was withdrawn from the market in June 2012.
But just 8 months later and the whole market is different.
Re-listed at the same price of $430,000 the coach house went under contract within 10 days.
If you recall, it does not have the vintage feel of most coach houses. Instead, it has contemporary styling.
The kitchen has modern cabinets, a stainless steel island and luxury appliances by SubZero, Miele and Bosch.
One of the 2 bedrooms is on the second floor with the other in the lower level.
Built on a 22×35 lot, there is a patio and central air but no parking.
It’s also a fee simple coach house with a 4-unit homeowners association.
Will this sell for around $400,000 as some of you originally guessed years ago?
Robert John Anderson at Baird & Warner now has the listing. See the pictures here.
337 W. Armitage: 2 bedrooms, 2 baths, 1400 square feet
- Sold in August 1990 for $193,000
- Sold in October 2002 for $145,000
- Sold in June 2004 for $440,000
- Originally listed in 2007/2008- never sold
- Re-listed in June 2011 for $500,000
- Was listed in November 2011 for $500,000
- Reduced
- Was listed in April 2012 at $430,000
- Withdrawn in June 2012
- Re-listed in February 2013 for $430,000
- Under contract in 10 days
- Assessments of $145 a month
- Taxes now $2800 (they were $2164 in 2012)
- Central Air
- Washer/Dryer in the unit
- No parking
- Bedroom #1: 17×17 (second floor)
- Bedroom #2: 18×11 (lower level)
- Living/dining combo: 17×9 (main level)
- Kitchen: 17×8 (main level)
“Originally listed in 2007/2008- never sold”
Thought that wasn’t relevant?
This listing could be a case-example of how high-quality photography is essential to sell an odd-duck listing. Coachhouse looks far more appealing here than in its prior listing photos.
~ The realtor cartel will ensure it sells within 10% of list price.
~ Looks like a cramped 1,400 sq feet on three levels? Master bed upstairs, 2nd bedroom in basement? This is a one bedroom with a den!
~ Kitchen looks great but they should have splurged a little extra for a real island rather than a cart that functions as an island.
~ Decent place, decent location, cool little condo alternative in the city for a single or childless couple making good money. Unique definitely, and not for everybody, but suitable for lifestyles.
~ the value of a place like this is worth whatever the market is willing to bear because it’s so unique. Like I tell my wife – we recently bought this used midcentury table – she thinks we paid too much – and we probably did, but it’s what the market will bear, and we paid it. That’s how this place is. SOmeone will come along, love it, and just buy it. But that’s rarity in most real estate transactions especially for cookie cutter units – which this is not.
“Originally listed in 2007/2008- never sold”
“Thought that wasn’t relevant?”
This was copied from the old post I did in like 2011. So yeah- it WAS relevant in 2011 to know that they tried to sell a few years before but couldn’t. I just cut and paste the entire property’s history when I do an update years later on the same property.
~ The realtor cartel will ensure it sells within 10% of list price.
I would be estastic if that were always true — my condo would be on the market today!
~ The realtor cartel will ensure it sells within 10% of list price.
If that were true my condo would be on the market for What_I_Owe_Bank + 2X transactions costs = bring no money to the table.
~ The realtor cartel will ensure it sells within 10% of list price.
If that were true, I would not be in the circles of foreclosure/deed in lieu hell.
Perhaps the buyers were blindfolded (“Darling! It’s a surprise!”) and shown only the inside because the front looks like a dark chapter in a Dickens novel. Per the listing “Lincoln Park as its front yard” is egregiously incorrect. More like an electrical substation. Otherwise, what a lovely place!
Liven the finishes this is definitely a deal. It may be an odd layout, but surely it fits someone’s lifestyle.
Given all our suburb vs downtown discussions thought this might be interesting to some:
http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20130302/ISSUE01/303029987/the-hottest-urban-center-in-the-u-s-chicagos-mega-loop
Toured this unit. My primary question is whether the basement bedroom is a legal bedroom (only very indirect light coming from stairwell), and if not, whether it is ethical for the realtor to list it as such.
Spaces were a little tight (i.e. how is furniture arranged if a TV were to be installed), and the rooftop was accessed via a “submarine hatch”. Conveniently the snow cover prevented us from trying it out, and the snow also covered the uneven brick paving of the courtyard. Lack of parking is a little rough. Reserves were not all that high.
Other than that, I actually like the unit a lot. Including the presence on the alley. Though I’d price it closer to 380K.
“This was copied from the old post I did in like 2011. So yeah- it WAS relevant in 2011 to know that they tried to sell a few years before but couldn’t. I just cut and paste the entire property’s history when I do an update years later on the same property.”
That’s worse than this:
“I ran out of gas! I–I had a flat tire! I didn’t have enough money for cab fare! My tux didn’t come back from the cleaners! An old friend came in from out of town! Someone stole my car! There was an earthquake! A terrible flood! Locusts! IT WASN’T MY FAULT, I SWEAR TO GOD!!!”
Horrible, half-assed, shill-esque excuse.
What’s the extent of the agreement between CribChatter and the Ames Group??
Good for the seller, I wouldn’t even step foot in the place due to the exterior.
Stop trolling anon
HD:
When did you join up with the shill team?
anon(tfo) it’s so rude to relentlessly attack our nice host Sabrina. I know Sabrina doesn’t need me to stand up for her, but your attacks are the only thing that’s inexcusable around here. Maybe you need a vacation or something.
“Horrible, half-assed, shill-esque excuse.
What’s the extent of the agreement between CribChatter and the Ames Group??”
gotta love that curb appeal!
“Given all our suburb vs downtown discussions thought this might be interesting to some:
http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20130302/ISSUE01/303029987/the-hottest-urban-center-in-the-u-s-chicagos-mega-loop”
Poorly written article lacking much in the way of substance. The article leads with “despite the fact that Chicago lost 200,000 residents” yet says everything is booming despite rampant gang violence (more than a little of which occurs in their 2 mile radius) and staggering entitlement debt (city *and* state).
Brown line EL ridership data point was totally off base and supported a flawed conclusion. Wow — doubled since 1994 and tripled since 1970 — compound growth rates that are basically equal to GDP. Trend gas prices and that would explain everything. Of course those numbers exclude two historically high volume stops — Fullerton and Belmont. If you add them in, you would draw a different conclusion.
The rest of the article continues a tallest midget argument comparing a small collection of census tracts downtown to an otherwise underperforming MSA that is completely sucking wind. Bad is better than terrible, great point.
” but your attacks are the only thing that’s inexcusable around here”
have you read some of the comments on this blog? tfo’s attacks are like 8374th on the list of things that are inexcusable around here.
“like 8374th”
I’d put it in the mid-7000s myself.
El ridership is at a 50 year high.
TIme to build a real subway system, the El is an old piece of shit
Metra ridership shrank last year.
I thought this was particularly interesting since we argue about this stuff all the time:
“The number of households with annual income of more than $200,000 grew 81.8 percent in the region between 1999 and 2011. But that number rose 94.6 percent across the city and 113.1 percent in the central district.”
JMM – I thought the article had substance. They weren’t talking so much about Chicago (which stretches all the way to O’hare) as the downtown (what we would call the GZ). They make some comparisons to Manhattan and say Chicago gained more people w/in 2 miles of City Hall than any other city in the US. This is supported by record high rents in the GZ. Regarding gangs – I am also concerned w/ the violence in Chicago but the problem is more about the crime moving from centralized areas (some of which were in the GZ) out to the peripheral areas where it is harder to police than an uptick in crime in the GZ. I don’t know the stats but the GZ feels as safe as ever to me (having lived here for 10 yrs+). If Chicago is “sucking wind” then why are downtown rents at all time highs?
I personally think the suburbs across the country will continue to suffer vs urban areas going forward.
Homicides are down over 20% ytd so far.
“Left behind are suburbs and their aging populations, with minority residents with smaller incomes increasingly moving in. ”
enjoy HD!
“I don’t know the stats but the GZ feels as safe as ever to me (having lived here for 10 yrs+). ”
But yoss, what about the constant wildings on BoulMich? And the gang takeovers of North Avenue Beach?? As soon as it’s warm out, the GZ is gonna *explode*!!!
But seriously, I see the same things you do.
anon (tfo) – I am very curious about this summer w/ the Red line shut down for repairs. I actually think this will save Rahm’s azz – there will be a huge drop in crime downtown and they will take credit for it.
don’t worry my suburb is isolated. ill be ok.
“my suburb is isolated”
You moved to North Oaks?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Oaks,_Minnesota
Thanks for the link yoss, interesting read.
Thing is, you’re *never* going to convince, and not that you were trying to, the majority of CC posters whom I’m guessing are suburban or soon to be suburban bound, that living in the city is a good thing for anyone – not them, their kids, their RE investment, you, me, no one. False bottom, knife catcher, sewer level (basement), narrow/dark (coveted vintage townhouse), lack of closets (ie: not a McMansion walk in), school obsessions, Oak Brook rules, on and on, are one big ‘I heart Naperville’ t-shirt. That’s the same adjusted for the 80’s lingo I heard from my suburban friends/coworkers when I bought in the city decades ago, and in spite of their dire warnings I still prospered. Nothing has changed… expect the fact that they’re now stuck in a vanilla lifestyle they can’t get out of. Haters hate.
Its amusing the teabaggers are against high speed rail, it would be one of the few things making their country life in the exurbs possible and *gasp* better
“TIme to build a real subway system, the El is an old piece of shit”
+1
anon (tfo) posted “You moved to North Oaks?”. I recently drove to/fro north woods of Wisconsin during which drive I pass identical scenery whether I drive to Bayfield WI or Duluth MN – hundreds of miles thru extremely low pop. density, a semi uninhabited region. While it is a beautiful rolling hill scenic part of our country, it is characterized by farmland, timberland & scrub land, all of which have as highest and best use in my eyes of holding our earth together. I don’t understand who stays to live there after hitting age 17. But if you do venture up US 53 north of Eau Claire, I highly recommend eating at a Norske Nook, a delightful small chain of Norwegian themed restaurant/ bakeries serving exceptional comfort food & pie!
“I wouldn’t even step foot in the place due to the exterior.”
Who really cares? This place is not overpriced at $300 psf for it’s location and interior design. In Greenwich Village it’d be 4 times the price. Don’t people pay big money in places like Mykonos or Santa Fe to have those kinds of exteriors? Some divorced guy w/ no kids will buy it?
HD posted how this property reminds him of process of buying used mid century table: ” Someone will come along, love it and just buy it.” You of all people should acknowledge that unlike buying used furniture the prospective buyer who ‘comes along, loves it and wants to just buy it’ must first convince a lender of the wisdom of putting up 80% +/- of the amount required to ‘just buy it’.
Nearly the entire West Loop is new. When I moved downtown in ’91, I walked west down Madison to see how far I would get. I was warmly greeted in the block past Halsted. That is as far as I got.
“They make some comparisons to Manhattan and say Chicago gained more people w/in 2 miles of City Hall than any other city in the US.”
Southbound: Wrong North Oaks. North Oaks, MN, not WI.
suburban life is less desirable because
1) less people can afford to have children,
2) less people are having children due to abortion, contraception, feminism, homosexuality
3) many are unwilling to give up the partying (Sex in the City started that stuff)
4) gas prices are up, and people fear the regular $100 gas tank fill-up that’s coming
5) minorities are moving into the suburbs, making them worse (it’s long been established on CC that people will not give up self-segration, so they move out when the influx comes in.)
6) people cannot afford downpayments to move
7) newer DT housing is apartment rentals
This is an interesting trend because this kind of urban development happens in Blue/Liberal locations. What happens is the Huff Post types marvel at their new areas, but completely dismiss the areas that are declining. I’ve always thought that for every area that goes up (North to Cermak), there are TWO TIMES the areas that decline: Riis Park, inner-ring suburbs, H-F, etc. But since the “chattering class” lives in liberal enclaves like the GZ, they don’t give two shits about the rest of the areas.
PS Does anyone actually believe this guy?!!
‘KEPT SELLING’
Joel Carlins….“We kept selling,” he explains, with most of the buyers in one tower paying in cash, even though units sold for an average of $715,000. “
“The number of households with annual income of more than $200,000 grew 81.8 percent in the [Chicago] region between 1999 and 2011. But that number rose 94.6 percent across the city and 113.1 percent in the central district.”
1999 was a boom-time, with the dotcom bubble in full gear, with very low unemployment. Inflation hasn’t been that high during that time (as reported by Fed). I’d like to hear hd’s explanation on this statistic.
Lakeshore East is one of those bizarro areas where super wealthy people are buying property even though there are no real neighborhood amenities (shopping, food, groceries, drugstores, etc.) and its windy as fuck there, and loaded with tourists in every direction
“Lakeshore East … no real neighborhood amenities (shopping, food, groceries, drugstores, etc.)”
The Mariano’s doesn’t count? III Forks, Eggy’s, Maison Brasserie??
Oh, and there’s a CVS in LS East now, too.
“Lakeshore East is one of those bizarro areas where super wealthy people are buying property”
I bet he’s a client of JZ. Me thinks CC’ers should investigate this alleged all-cash claim.
Vlajos Homicides are down over 20% ytd so far.
February 2013 had the lowest number of homicides of any month since 1957.
helmethofer 2) less people are having children due to abortion, contraception, feminism, homosexuality
2) What? Abortion has been legal in the US for 40 years. The abortion rate has been declining since the mid-80s and reached an all-time low in 2011. Contraception has been widely available since the mid-60s, feminism has been steadily declining in popularity since the 70s, and the percentage of homosexuality in the population is believed to be a fairly constant 4ish%. None of those factors can explain the fact that fewer people are having children.
3) many are unwilling to give up the partying (Sex in the City started that stuff)
Sex and the City? Really? So nobody was partying into their 30s and 40s prior to 1998?
Save your breath Madeline, facts mean little to Dan.
I read in the NY Times today that ‘Arkansas adopts strictest abortion law in the US’. Good for them, and good luck to that state in attracting/keeping global businesses that rely on highly educated progressive young professionals. That’s not to say someone can’t do a stellar job and be against a woman’s right to choose, it means that big businesses know, and have spent millions to know, that the next generation of skilled employees are overwhelming prochoice, pro gay, and generally socially progressive. There’s a reason why that big business group in IL (I forget their name) strongly urged the state to pass gay marriage. It isn’t that they care about homosexual rights or freedoms, what they care about is that it’s good for business, as in attracting young talent that they’ll profit from. I’m guessing Dan doesn’t know big business… but the city and state does.
“but the city and state does”
Who’s Dan? I know that Red China is better at business than Chicago and its Groupons and realtors. Really what China should be doing is listening to socially progressive lectures from the likes of Hillary Clinton…yeah, she really gets far with them. Maybe if they did adopt the mentality of Hillary and douche-bags like jay, we could actually close our trade deficit. For now, their rejection of the jay’s of the world allows them to rack up massive trade surpluses and create billionaires.
Don’t be discouraged anon. I once tried ridiculing a realtor’s comment with “Seven years of college down the drain. Might as well join the f_cking peace corp” — and I was reprimanded, sigh.
” ‘IT WASN’T MY FAULT, I SWEAR TO GOD!!!’ “
“Who’s Dan?”
This makes my day. It’s so hilarious.
Who’s Dan. Ha! ha!
“Horrible, half-assed, shill-esque excuse.
What’s the extent of the agreement between CribChatter and the Ames Group??”
Well, I haven’t had contact with Jenny or anyone at the Ames Group for a couple of years. I can’t remember the last time I talked with anyone there. Hm…maybe 2011? I don’t know. They are always great to me whenever I DO bother them about one of their listings though.
anon(tfo) you’re acting like a fool. I have been doing the posts the same way for nearly 6 years.
“Red China is better at business than Chicago”
no… just… so wrong
“as the downtown (what we would call the GZ). ”
yoss I’ll enlighten you to a point most get earlier: the only people who call what most CCers call/refer to the “GZ” as “downtown” are from the suburbs.
“anon(tfo) it’s so rude to relentlessly attack our nice host Sabrina. I know Sabrina doesn’t need me to stand up for her, but your attacks are the only thing that’s inexcusable around here. Maybe you need a vacation or something. ”
Aww homedelete’s off her estrogen supplements again–lol
“Lakeshore East is one of those bizarro areas where super wealthy people are buying property even though there are no real neighborhood amenities (shopping, food, groceries, drugstores, etc.) and its windy as fuck there, and loaded with tourists in every direction”
I was down there right when it started to get cold and I was fascinated with the area. No way in hell I’d ever live there full time but it was like a twilight zone with huge skyscrapers with low foot traffic. It was real trippy. You could totally hear the lapping of the river & lake and it was windy as heck!
Regardless of tourists it might attract locals like myself when the weather is better–to walk through. It’s a well kept up neighborhood and a weird out-of-this-world vibe. In fact as a visitor the relative lack of retail makes this place even more interesting.
” it WAS relevant in 2011 to know that they tried to sell a few years before but couldn’t.”
It was relevant to know that ine property couldn’t sell four years earlier, into the headwind of the ongoing bust, but not now relevant to know that merely 18 months ago a seller was asking a pie in the sky price near the bottom of the market? And, knowing that the latter had been previously listed, you intentionally chose to call the 2012 listing the “original” listing?? Or is it just too hard to say ‘oops’?
Whatever. Your thing, your rules. But it ain’t consistent.
‘I know that Red China is better at business than Chicago and its Groupons and realtors.’
http://www.theatlanticcities.com/jobs-and-economy/2011/09/25-most-economically-powerful-cities-world/109/#slide4
So now it’s China vs the City of Chicago. Okaaaay. You realize China is not a city, but whatever. I imagine if Chicago fired it’s electrical plants with old tires whereas we’d all be wearing surgical masks, razed entire communities without the inhabitants consent to build what are now called ghost cities or as it’s called in the US, a *major* RE bubble of epic proportions inches from happening, banned Google and thereby squashing any notion of a free thinking democracy (even if it’s only an internet search engine), then yes Chicago ‘may’ be able to ‘close the trade deficit’ and kick China’s ass on some obscure level. I’ll settle with being #4 (and that’s from a sluggish 2011), thank you. I beg you Sabrina, never ban this man as it’s like a personal WTF? podcast from Pat Robertson, on the hour every hour.
Grow up anon(tfo).
Like I said. I’ve been doing the EXACT SAME THING ON ALL THE POSTS FOR NEARLY 6 YEARS.
If you’re too clueless to figure it out- then that’s your problem.
Bob (March 7, 2013, 12:44 am)
“as the downtown (what we would call the GZ). ”
yoss I’ll enlighten you to a point most get earlier: the only people who call what most CCers call/refer to the “GZ” as “downtown” are from the suburbs.”
So downtown Chicago (as defined in the article) isn’t in the GZ? I’ll enlighten you – it is. A two mile radius from City Hall gets you to North and Wells and 18th and State. That encompasses River North / Gold Coast / Southern Old Town / Streeterville / West Loop / South Loop. The only parts missing are LP and LV.
“You could totally hear the lapping of the river & lake and it was windy as heck!”
Like a golden bars prison, an upscale version of Alcatraz. Isolated.
jay: I see you benefit from selective editing from Sabrina of my posts, including all the info I posted about Richard Florida…and Silicon Valey, and Wallstreet etc. All I am saying is that your claim that “progressive” culture and hipsters and homosexuals and mandatory diversity = big business is false. I’m not going to type it all up again. Check RE prices psf in the world. http://www.businessinsider.com/most-expensive-real-estate-markets-2013-3
“but the city and state does”
You aren’t qualified to talk about big business anyway, you aren’t a top level executive at a large global corporation, you’re a basic nobody on this planet, so save us your opinions which aren’t backed up by any fact.
jay: LOL, you posted a link to a Richard Florida source! You’re so gullible and predictable. Like a cartoon. Never ban this man, LMAO!